U.S. now over 2700 breweries

http://beerpulse.com/2013/03/brewer...5-increase-in-craft-beer-volume-for-2013-025/

10.2%

 

I'm sure there's a way to come up with some kind of average to account for regional disrepancies. I'm just saying which is worth more money: a truckload of Bud Light or a truckload of BCBS? Profit margins might actually be pretty similar, but people are clearly willing to pay a lot more per ounce for craft beer than for macro.

 

ABInbev and MillerCoors wish that they could get profit margins similar to craft breweries.

 

Barrelage has been the dominant and convertional way to rank breweries by size and to measure market share for several centuries in the US. It is an exact figure - brewers pay Federal tax based on the number of barrels of beer they release, minus returns.

"Retail dollar value" is much hard to measure and is obviously created by some sort of formula. Retail off-premise prices for the same beer can vary greatly - 20-30% from state to state and even within the same market. On-premise retail prices are often 100-300% greater than off-premise for the same beer. But, of those retail prices - on- and off-premise - what is share of those dollars that go to the brewer?

While your $20 12 oz. bottle might have cost the same as a suitcase of Bud Light, it really doesn't say much about the state of the brewing industry in general, or craft's share of that market.

 

That's why I chose a comparison between Bud Light and BCBS; they're both made by the same company. I recall a local brewer posting somewhere on here that his margins on his most widely distributed beer, a very tasty, hoppy pale ale that goes for $10 a six-pack, are roughly the same as what he gets for his barrel-aged offerings that he sells for $15 a bomber.

 

Well I threw the idea out there specifically so you could explain to me why I was wrong. Mission accomplished.

 

The sarcasm. I enjoy it. I shall buy you a cookie some time. No -- TWO cookies! Of your choosing.

Nothing over $2.

 

Ha! (I left off "Goddammit, I been doin' it that way for 5 decades now, I ain't 'bout ta change!")

I like the fact that the B.A. also lists the dollar market share, because it is interesting (even if, I think it's fair to say, it seems that "craft" prices have been going up quicker than "macro" for the past decade).

I do think that these probably very rare if not mythical "Customer X's" who went from buying a 12 pack a day of Miller Lite to becoming exclusively craftsters probably do wind up drinking less volume - certainly even if they're drinking the same volume of absolute alcohol, they're still drinking fewer total barrels a year.

And, as craft grows, will that mean a continued reduction in the US per capita beer consumption? Just as total beer sales are down the past half decade - peaking at 213.2m bbl in 2008, down to 207.7m bbl last year - per capita is down, too. But per capita has been going down since the mid 80's when it was in the 24 gallons/year range, and it's now 20.3 gallons.